How do you improve responsiveness after seeing a significant reduction in your work force? For the Ventura County Health Care Plan leadership, the first step was a call to their IT department. The end result of this collaborative effort was the development of a desktop application that saves time and improves service for customers.

“We experienced an unprecedented number of high-cost claims that put us in a financial challenge,” explained Dee Pupa, Health Care Agency Deputy Director. “As part of our mitigation plan, we had to reduce staff by 20 percent. After reassignments, we were left with the question, how do we close the gap … while maintaining the same level of customer service?”

The health system was receiving hundreds of calls and faxes from their clinics every day to verify eligibility. With the reduction in staff, there was significant concern on how those calls would be handled in a timely fashion. “You can imagine the strain on staff,” Pupa said.

“We knew we were going to get the same type of call volume, but we had to find ways to continue to meet our members’ needs with a reduction in workforce,” said Staff Service Manager Christina Turner.

The CSAC Legislative Conference is just getting started and we will be engaged in two full days of discussing policy, analyzing the Governor’s May Revision to the State Budget, and networking with colleagues from around the state. As we look into the next month of budget discussions, a full legislative calendar and the impact of an election year, I am optimistic about the prospects for California’s 58 Counties and the nearly 40 million residents we serve.

As in most counties across the country, the vast majority of individuals incarcerated in the Santa Clara County Jail are pretrial. And as in most counties, the majority of these individuals are low-income and many would be considered low-risk. Bail reform has been a hot topic lately; while there has been a lot of discussion but little action, things are different in Santa Clara County.

I came to Sacramento to make sure the local perspective was represented at the Capitol. It had become crystal clear in my 14 years as a Napa County supervisor that the interests of cities and counties — and the communities they serve — were often overlooked. We need to create a state with good schools, clean air, safe streets and ample jobs that we can be proud of for future generations.

Manuel Cisneros and his son Adan gently package fruits and vegetables for the week’s veggie boxes. Broccoli, green onions, oranges, grapefruits and avocados are just a few of the items filling the boxes destined for local kitchens. Minutes earlier, the father and son team were picking the fruit and pulling the vegetables out of the rich soil. Fresh indeed – and organic. They are meant for Los Angeles County residents who often don’t have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

In a perfect world, people suffering from a mental or emotional health issue would be able to access treatment before they were in crisis, but it doesn’t always work that way. They often end up in the hospital emergency department. That’s why a partnership between the Sutter Yuba Behavioral Health Department and Adventist Health/Rideout Hospital in Marysville is making such a big difference. They found a way to significantly reduce the time it takes to evaluate and treat these patients.

Sacramento County is one of five counties in California to implement the Voter’s Choice Act (VCA), expanding voting opportunities for all Sacramento County residents. You might have seen the recent news or perhaps, received a postcard in the mail explaining the changes but if you haven’t, here’s what you need to know: Sacramento County residents can now choose when, where and how to vote.

Sonoma County was dealing with a housing crisis well before the October 2017 firestorms. Rental occupancy was at 99 percent and people who worked in hospitality and agriculture were traveling longer and longer distances to find housing they could afford. Then came the fires that destroyed more than 5,000 homes in Sonoma County alone.

Homelessness is a very complex issue, but the math is relatively simple. We have more than 2.2 million households in California that qualify as either Very or Extremely Low Income. There are only about 664,000 low-income housing units in the state. That means more than one and a half million households are struggling to find and afford a place to live. We need more affordable housing—and we need it now. Building or subsidizing more affordable housing won’t be easy or inexpensive, but the costs are far if we don’t find solutions.

When we think of firefighting equipment, heavy hoses and axes quickly come to mind. In Tulare County, the Fire Department has added a new tool to its firefighting arsenal: a specialized app that provides valuable and necessary data to crews before they head out to a location, assisting them in saving lives and property.

Of all the problems our state and local governments are trying to solve, homelessness is among the most important and challenging. The number of homeless people in California has climbed dramatically in recent years, to about 134,000, though experts agree the actual number is probably far higher. Their lives are literally hanging in the balance.

When it comes to cannabis, Humboldt County has come a long way in the past couple of years. Historically renowned for its illegal grows, the County is now leading the way on working to ensure only permitted cannabis is entering the California marketplace. While Humboldt is still the epicenter of the “Emerald Triangle,” it became the first government entity in the state to implement a track-and-trace system for cannabis.

Passed and signed into law last year, SB 1 is starting to generate revenue which will reach more than $5 billion a year at full implementation. The revenue is allocated to state and local governments to fix and make safety improvements to highways and local streets and roads, repair or replace aging bridges, increase active modes of transportation, improve and expand transit, and reduce congestion. Accountability is one of the key components of SB 1. In fact, SB 1 created a new position of Inspector General at Caltrans.

Mark Dale became an activist in Marin County after one of his sons almost became a statistic in the opioid epidemic. “I actually identified eight individuals who passed away: six students and two adults that were drug-related or drug driven,” said Dale. “And that’s what really woke me up. I opened my mouth because if my son had cancer, we’d be talking about it, but because there was a drug-dynamic around my son, most families just zip their lip. And that’s not good. The silence has been killing us.”

We know how busy everyone is, and how overloaded we all are with information. Our mobile devices keep us plugged in 24-7, and just deciding what is important and what isn’t can be a chore. We also know that attention spans are getting shorter, not longer. There are a lot of reasons for that, not all of them comforting perhaps, but they are well documented. At CSAC, we know that if we really want to reach people we have to be concise in our communication.

Meet Katery. Eighteen months ago, Katery was a classic at-risk youth. She would often skip school and had no plans to continue her education beyond high school – if she graduated at all. She had been in trouble with the law, having been arrested for assaulting a police officer.

Now Katery’s on track to graduate a year early and is preparing to start taking classes at the local community college. She is also starting to talk about planning for a career. Quite a turn-around for an individual who at one time saw working in the fields as an adult her only option.

Nestled in the heart of California’s Foothills and awash with Gold Country history, Nevada County might not seem like a hotbed of building and construction. However, with many old, historic homes, and more people wanting to live in the bucolic landscape of the Foothills, Nevada County has more than its share of both new construction and remodeling activity.

I have served as a Kern County Supervisor for six years now, but I think I’ve been in “public service” since I ran for my sixth-grade class presidency. It was a much closer race than I thought it was going to be, and I took away two important lessons from that experience. First, in politics, you can’t take anything for granted. Second, I will absolutely listen to you with respect and an open mind and I will expect the same courtesy from you.

​With Benjamin Franklin’s wisdom echoing across the centuries, I want to invite my county colleagues across California to make an investment in your own future by enrolling in courses offered by the CSAC Institute for Excellence in County Government. There are classes available in several locations around the state and I am pleased to tell you that the newest campus is located right here in beautiful Shasta County.